Tour: Vincent van Gogh

Overview

Vincent van Gogh was born and spent his childhood in the southern Netherlands, where his father was a minister. At sixteen he joined a well-known art dealership and remained seven years although he was not well suited to the business of art. Then, he worked in succession as a teacher, preacher, and missionary. While evangelizing in a poor coal-mining district he began to draw in earnest. Dismissed by church authorities in 1880, Van Gogh finally found his vocation in art.